Asayoru Cafe maids welcoming guests to the event.
Little Tokyo hosted their monthly event in Los Angeles with live performances and a brand-new maid cafe pop-up to spread Japanese pop culture.
Southern California residents travel to Little Tokyo to attend this experience filled with Japanese foods, pop culture, merchandise, and live music. This event marks a new growth for the community as the maid cafe experience is a more recent addition to their lineup.
With anime as an interest to many, Little Tokyo collaborated with Crunchyroll, a popular streaming site for anime, to bring the Mega Kawaii Shop pop-up, filled with limited edition anime figures and photo opportunities this month. Customers were gifted a free tote bag with every purchase over $50 and a free small figure with every purchase.
Many types of Japanese food were available at the event that introduced a variety of tastes between sweet and savory. Foods like takoyaki, curry, dango, and taiyaki were sold at stands and food trucks all around Little Tokyo. Japanese food from maid cafes were the newest addition to this month as Asayoru Cafe participated in this event to bring maid cafe culture to LA.
Little Tokyo has invited Asayoru Cafe, a Los Angeles based maid cafe, to give the community this experience filled with food, drinks, performances, and photo sessions with the maids. In Japan, maid cafes are a huge part of their pop culture, where it is considered a tourist attraction to travelers. Though now, California residents can experience another part of Japanese culture within the country.
Maid cafes are a family-friendly dinner and a show, where waitresses dressed as maids serve their goshujin-sama (master) or ojou-sama (my lady) with a lot of enthusiasm and care. These terms are used by the maids as a form of hospitality and to go with the theme of maids. The concept of maid cafes is eccentric, though locals can compare this experience to experiences like Medieval Times in Buena Park where guests are treated in a similar manner. Guests are assigned a maid who takes care of them in terms of food and services where they then lead you to your table. The maid then takes your order where guests can pick their entree and drink. The menu at this maid cafe is quite small with the only choices being omurice (omelet rice), chicken curry, or a cutlet bento. Each food item is decorated to fit the “kawaii” or cute theme to the maid cafe. To further immerse guests, maids also encourage them to join in on their “moe chant” to make their drink and food more delicious. Food and drinks are served by maids with “moe” which is a Japanese term for enthusiasm and cuteness. As guests enjoy their dinner, the maids put on performances every half hour by singing, dancing, and playing games with the guests. After the experience, guests are offered the opportunity to take a commemorative photo with a maid of their choice where you can further converse with the performers.
One guest of Asayoru Cafe, Gabriel Zeal, shared that it’s a very fun experience for him and his girlfriend outside of what society deems normal. He said that he has been to maid cafes in Japan and that they were similar to those experiences as well. Another guest, Ximena Merca, was surprised by how immersive the experience was, but thoroughly enjoyed it.
Besides the newest addition, Los Angeles native talents inspired by Japanese culture made appearances at this event. Notably, the local artists Hamu Cotton and Moe Age! took the stage by singing and dancing to trending songs from anime and self-released music. Performances spanned from 5pm to 7pm to end the event with immense energy.
Little Tokyo’s next event is “Akiba Pop-Up & Lives Vtuber and Idol Showcase” on September 14th!
